Kubernetes is widely recognized as the universal control plane for modern data infrastructure, and organizations are converging virtual machines (VMs) and containers onto a single, cloud-native stack. KubeVirt sits at the heart of this transformation—enabling traditional VMs to run natively inside Kubernetes. However, as VM-based workloads transition into containerized environments, the KubeVirt storage layer is critical.
This is where Lightbits software-defined storage shines.
Lightbits delivers scalable, high-performance, software-defined block storage that is natively designed with NVMe over TCP—an ideal pairing for KubeVirt environments that require consistent low latency, enterprise durability, and simplified operations across mixed workloads.
What Is KubeVirt?
KubeVirt is an open-source Kubernetes add-on that brings full virtualization capabilities to the platform. Instead of relying on a separate hypervisor stack, KubeVirt introduces VM-specific Kubernetes resources (such as VirtualMachine and VirtualMachineInstance) and controllers that enable VMs to be managed just like containers. As such, users get the best of both worlds:
- Kubernetes provides scheduling, networking, scalability, and storage orchestration.
- KubeVirt adds a virtualization layer that is fully integrated into Kubernetes.
This unified approach allows DevOps teams to adopt GitOps workflows, consolidate their tooling, and simplify operations across heterogeneous workloads.
What are the Core Components of KubeVirt?
KubeVirt introduces several components to make VMs first-class Kubernetes objects:
- Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) – Manage VMs through kubectl just as you would pods or deployments.
- virt-api – Exposes VM APIs to Kubernetes.
- virt-controller – Handles the lifecycle of VMs cluster-wide.
- virt-handler – Node-level component responsible for synchronizing VM state.
- virt-launcher – A VM-specific pod that runs the actual VM instance.
Key Capabilities: VMs the Cloud-Native Way
KubeVirt supports the full suite of enterprise virtualization features:
- Live Migrations – Move running VMs between nodes with no downtime.
- Image & Data Management – CDI handles importing, cloning, and managing VM disk images using Kubernetes Persistent Volume Claims (PVCs).
- Advanced Networking – Integrates with Multus and SR-IOV for multi-NIC or passthrough use cases.
- Hardware Acceleration – GPU passthrough and host device access for specialized workloads.
- Day-2 Operations – virtctl simplifies console access, power operations, and migrations.
What are the Key Use Cases for KubeVirt?
Organizations adopt KubeVirt for use cases such as:
- Workload Consolidation – Run containerized apps and VM workloads side by side to reduce footprint and complexity.
- Application Modernization – Migrate existing VM workloads to a Kubernetes/GitOps model without rewriting the application.
- Edge Deployments – Co-locate legacy VMs with cloud-native services in constrained edge environments.
KubeVirt vs. OpenShift Virtualization: Understanding the Difference
A common misconception: Is KubeVirt an alternative to Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization? Yes and no, or better, not necessarily.
KubeVirt is an open-source project that can be run independently on any standard Kubernetes cluster, entirely outside of Red Hat OpenShift-Virtualization. At the same time, KubeVirt is the core technology that powers OpenShift-V. OpenShift-V is Red Hat’s enterprise-grade product that takes the open-source KubeVirt project and wraps it with deep integrations into the OpenShift platform’s networking, storage, web console, and security features, providing a unified and enterprise-supported solution. So, while KubeVirt is the technology you can run anywhere, OpenShift-V is the product built upon it.
KubeVirt Storage: The Value of Lightbits
While KubeVirt delivers the virtualization layer needed to run VMs natively within Kubernetes, the storage foundation ultimately determines whether those workloads can perform reliably in production. VMs place very different demands on storage than containerized apps: they require consistently low latency, high IOPS at scale, durable and highly available block storage, and fast, dependable live migration. They also rely on mature data services such as thin provisioning, snapshots, and compression to operate efficiently. Most Kubernetes storage platforms, however, were designed with ephemeral container storage in mind, not virtualization, which means they often fall short when VMs are introduced into the cluster.
With legacy SAN systems running KubeVirt organizations frequently encounter application timeouts, unstable or slow live migrations, inconsistent performance under mixed container-and-VM load, and unnecessary overprovisioning just to achieve acceptable throughput. These limitations can undermine the benefits of unifying containers and VMs on Kubernetes.
Lightbits addresses these challenges head-on by providing a storage solution purpose-built for latency-sensitive, persistent workloads like the VMs that KubeVirt manages.
Lightbits delivers a high-performance, software-defined NVMe/TCP block storage that aligns perfectly with KubeVirt’s requirements. By bringing near-local NVMe performance to standard Ethernet networks, Lightbits eliminates the need for specialized fabrics or proprietary hardware. The intelligent data placement, caching algorithms, and built-in QoS controls ensure predictable, low-latency performance even in highly multi-tenant environments, allowing VM workloads to run smoothly alongside containers. Because KubeVirt’s live migration capabilities depend heavily on the speed and consistency of the underlying storage, Lightbits’ high-throughput, efficient snapshotting, and distributed durability make migrations fast, reliable, and non-disruptive.
Beyond raw performance, Lightbits offers the mature data services enterprises expect, including thin provisioning, inline compression, snapshot and clone capabilities, synchronous replication for resilience, and elastic scaling. These features ensure that large and performance-sensitive VM images are managed efficiently without operational overhead. And because Lightbits scales independently of compute, organizations can eliminate the traditional overprovisioning associated with KVM-based environments. Delivered through a Kubernetes-native CSI driver, Lightbits integrates seamlessly with KubeVirt, CDI image workflows, OpenShift Virtualization, and GitOps automation—making it the ideal storage foundation for running virtualization at Kubernetes scale.
Final Thoughts
KubeVirt modernizes how enterprises run VMs.
Lightbits modernizes how those VMs consume storage.
Together, they deliver a unified, modern cloud virtualization stack that outperforms legacy hypervisors, simplifies operations, and enables full adoption of Kubernetes—without sacrificing performance, availability, or economics.
